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The GOP’s looming health-care disaster is the whole party’s fault
NY Post ^ | July 20, 2017 | Rich Lowry

Posted on 07/20/2017 10:48:48 PM PDT by Oshkalaboomboom

The ascension of Donald Trump was supposed to change everything in the GOP. As it happens, perhaps one very important thing hasn’t: The Republicans may well still be The Stupid Party.

That ObamaCare repeal has one or maybe two feet in the grave, depending on how you’re counting, is testament to jaw-dropping disarray and bad faith.

On the cusp of a historic failure, the party has begun the finger-pointing, and it’s hard to argue with any of it. The establishment is right that Trump is incapable of true legislative leadership. The Trumpists are right that the establishment is ineffectual. Conservatives are right that moderates don’t really want to repeal ObamaCare, whatever they’ve said in the past. And pragmatists are right that a few conservatives are beholden to a self-defeating purity.

The Republican members of the world’s greatest deliberative body aren’t covering themselves in glory. Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky have always been no’s, leaving no margin for error. Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas are additional no’s on the current repeal-and-replace bill, while Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska have joined Collins as no’s on repeal-only.

At least Collins, an ideological outlier, has been consistent. She voted against the repeal-only bill in 2015, and the GOP leadership never thought she was gettable.

The same can’t be said of her cohorts. Capito and Murkowski both voted for the repeal-only bill a year and a half ago. The only plausible reason they’ve switched now is that they knew the bill would be safely relegated to oblivion by an Obama veto, whereas Trump will now sign any legislation into law.

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: obamacare; trump
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His best quote is the last paragraph:

Like the Democrats in 2009, Republicans have a historic opportunity that will quickly vanish unless it is seized. A majority is a terrible thing to waste. Six months in, Republicans are giving every indication that is exactly what they might do, to their everlasting disgrace.

1 posted on 07/20/2017 10:48:48 PM PDT by Oshkalaboomboom
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To: Oshkalaboomboom

None of this is the Republican’s fault. The Democrats created this monster, it belongs to them. It can not be repaired. The whole thing is a setup to destroy the Republican Party.


2 posted on 07/20/2017 10:56:37 PM PDT by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin (Freedom is the freedom to discipline yourself so others don't have to do it for you.)
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To: Oshkalaboomboom

Repeal. Let the ‘Rats replace.


3 posted on 07/20/2017 11:12:32 PM PDT by Paladin2 (No spelchk nor wrong word auto substition on mobile dev. Please be intelligent and deal with it....)
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To: Oshkalaboomboom

No, Rich. It is 100% the ‘rats fault.

FAKE opinion, dick.


4 posted on 07/20/2017 11:51:24 PM PDT by PGalt
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To: Oshkalaboomboom

With subjective and name calling incestuous reporting like this Rich Lowery demonstrates the problem the media is having.
There’s a battle for “the newspaper of record” going on as The New York Times has proven itself totally unreliable by the reporting and the lefty positions its taken which The NY Post could advance itself to if it simply reported the facts.


5 posted on 07/21/2017 12:04:24 AM PDT by mosesdapoet (Mosesdapoet aka L.J.Keslin)
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To: MeneMeneTekelUpharsin
The whole thing is a setup to destroy the Republican Party.

If there is one thing that is making the GOP look bad it is the multiple passages of bills to repeal Obamacare when they knew it would be vetoed. Now it makes them look like hypocrites and phonies. Which Democrat was responsible for the multiple GOP votes to repeal Obamacare?

6 posted on 07/21/2017 12:12:15 AM PDT by Oshkalaboomboom
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To: Oshkalaboomboom

indeed, a very accurate conclusion

it looks like the GOPe is trying to sink the entire GOP ship just because they failed to get their choice of a captain


7 posted on 07/21/2017 12:15:07 AM PDT by faithhopecharity ("Politicans are not born, they're excreted." -- Marcus Tillius Cicero)
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To: Oshkalaboomboom

Capito and murkowski are the hypocrites. What if anything do they have to say for their hypocrisy on their websites? Or was it actually 100% kabuki when during obama? Capito and murkowski are like a moon shot without a lunar lander rocket. Someone (who?) should have considered this possibility 2 years ago.

I am getting a sense that the republicans were not considering a Hillary presidency so much as a Ryan or Jen presidency. Maybe they thought their leader would be a country club republican who would be beholden to special interests and not ever actually put them in an actual uncomfortable position of actually having to make good on a popular campaign promise.


8 posted on 07/21/2017 12:56:52 AM PDT by SteveH
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To: MeneMeneTekelUpharsin

Disagree.. they’ve had 7+ years to come up with a plan and failed miserably and it’s pretty easy:

There should be no replacement there should only be repeal and allow insurance competition across state lines and let the free market work.

Government should stay out of healthcare period including medicare and medicaid.


9 posted on 07/21/2017 2:16:02 AM PDT by maddog55 (America Rising)
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To: MeneMeneTekelUpharsin
Or, if the pubbies had not barked for years - years I say - at no political risk believing "Never TRUMP" was the 2016 result, then O.K.

As DJT won the pubbies were in deep do-do ... Leadership on display as lessons from their childhood sandbox were clearly missed.

As soon as the pubbies realized a REPEAL, REPEAL and REPLACE, ... the Republicans in fact owe it!

The dims never looked for or sought such a gift.

Expect the 2018 election results to have the consequences of stupid puppies.

10 posted on 07/21/2017 3:09:07 AM PDT by jamaksin
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To: MeneMeneTekelUpharsin

Disagree. The failure of Trump’s plan is the fault of those who are opposing it — the Democrats and a small minority of Republicans, not the entire Republican party.


11 posted on 07/21/2017 3:26:40 AM PDT by Socon-Econ
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To: MeneMeneTekelUpharsin
The Dems created it but the feckless Repubs refuse to end it - they are aiders and abettors at the minimum.

All them for show votes when they knew it wouldn't go anywhere and the inability to deal with reality and the opportunities Trump has given them/us is a disgrace and I hold them just as accountable as the Dems at this juncture.

12 posted on 07/21/2017 3:33:43 AM PDT by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
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To: MeneMeneTekelUpharsin
None of this is the Republican’s fault. The Democrats created this monster, it belongs to them. It can not be repaired.

None was their fault to begin with. But they own it now so anything that happens from here on out is theirs.

13 posted on 07/21/2017 3:34:41 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: Oshkalaboomboom

The Republicans and Democrats are doing a fake wrestling gig. The fact that the GOP is setting itself up for losses is a great relief to the GOP. It is what they want.


14 posted on 07/21/2017 3:34:48 AM PDT by Cboldt
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To: Oshkalaboomboom
If there is one thing that is making the GOP look bad it is the multiple passages of bills to repeal Obamacare when they knew it would be vetoed. Now it makes them look like hypocrites and phonies.

I think the Republicans are cowed by the MSM and Democrat howling about the disasters that are supposedly going to happen if Obamacare is repealed. The MSM blocks them from seeing the actual opinions of the voters, and makes them forget why they were elected in the first place.

How many voters are actually writing, calling, etc., to remind the Republicans of their campaign promises that we expect them to keep?

15 posted on 07/21/2017 3:42:45 AM PDT by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
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To: Oshkalaboomboom

We elected the politicians with the “R” after their names so as not to have the politicians with the “D” after their names in office.
The politicians with the “R” after their names lied to us.
We now find that there is no difference between politicians with the “R” after their names and politicians with the “D” after their names as the politicians with the “R” after their names are not willing to undo the mistakes of the politicians with the “D” after their names.
You can say that it is only a small number of politicians with the “R” after their names that are causing this problem and you would be right.......for now. Because if not them, then another small group of politicians with an “R” after their names would emerge to take their place.
Neither the politicians with the “R” after their names nor the politicians with the “D” after their names have any interest in what is good for this nation.

The problem is not the “R” or the “D”.....the problem is the POLITICIANS.

This is why I voted for President Trump, because even though one political party greedily and unwittingly sold him the “R” to put after his name, he was NOT a politician.

I realized he could do nothing about the politicians with the “R” or the “D” after their names. That is up to the people to finally realize what absolute frauds both of them are. But he could do something about the Executive branch. IMO President Trump should tear through the Cabinet Room with a D-10 with a ripper blade leaving nothing but blood, teeth and hair in his wake. THAT would be the one thing that would make my vote seem worthwhile.


16 posted on 07/21/2017 4:20:23 AM PDT by Roccus ((When you talk to a politician...ANY politician...always say, "Remember Ceausescu"))
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To: Socon-Econ
Disagree. The failure of Trump’s plan is the fault of those who are opposing it — the Democrats and a small minority of Republicans, not the entire Republican party.

You are far too reasonable and your perspective is far too obvious. Wit not a single Democrat vote to fix the unutterably idiotic Obamacare they foisted upon us, this is a Democrat disaster of the first water. Sure, Pubbies have some real dunderheads in their ranks. Some, not all. Dems on the other hand is a homogeneous pack of hyenas.

17 posted on 07/21/2017 4:25:08 AM PDT by Louis Foxwell (Progressivism is 2 year olds in a poop fight.)
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To: Oshkalaboomboom
The establishment is right that Trump is incapable of true legislative leadership.

Trump is not in the legislative branch.

This statement appears to mean that President Trump is not a dictator on legislation, unlike Obama. Such an odd sentiment - it looks like a gratuitous swipe to me.

18 posted on 07/21/2017 4:35:22 AM PDT by MortMan (Adoption is God's grace in human action.)
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To: PGalt

If an obvious problem is within your power to correct, and you don’t, you assume ownership of the problem.


19 posted on 07/21/2017 4:40:48 AM PDT by PTBAA
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To: Oshkalaboomboom

Here’s the problem in a nutshell: The Democrats know what they want and the Republicans do not know what they want.


20 posted on 07/21/2017 4:42:10 AM PDT by Jim Noble (Single payer is coming. Which kind do you like?)
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